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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Bomb Banh Mi

One of the most satisfying things to do when you are
hungry is to get a huge sandwich that is wrapped in parchment paper, unroll it,
lay it out where you are eating, and then take a huge bite. Any kind of street
food or fast food comes in some awesome wrapping or sprawled out on some
gorgeous paper hot dog tray, and there is no exception to the Vietnamese street
food sandwich Banh Mi.

Banh Mi actually refers to the bread that the Banh
Mi sandwich is served on, it is a very airy version of a baguette which was
brought to Vietnam by the French when the French colonized. They are typically
made with a type of pate but we have decided to marry the glory of American
grilling with this delicious Vietnamese street food.

Our Banh Mi is a grilled marinated flank steak,
accompanied by a five spice pickled slaw of carrot and parsnip, red cabbage,
and topped with cilantro.

Ingredients: Makes 3

1 loaf soft baguette

1/2 head red cabbage

1 handful of cilantro

Slaw:

1 large parsnip

2 large carrots

1 Tablespoon Five Spice

½ cup rice wine vinegar

Steak:

1 ½ lbs skirt steak

3 cloves garlic

3 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons garlic salt

3 Tablespoons fish sauce

To start off we want you to prep and marinate your
meat. Start by laying your meat out and using a sharp knife, cut any excess
chunks of fat or silver skin (which is the connective tissue) so that the meat
doesn’t become too tough. Next smash up your garlic and in a large bowl
marinate your meat in all the meat ingredients, flipping a couple of times to
saturate both sides and refrigerate as long as you can, preferably overnight,
but hey we don’t all have that kind of planning time, so even 20 minutes is
fine.

Next peel and shred the parsnip and carrots. In a small
sauce pan boil vinegar and five spice, once boiling remove from heat and add
parsnip and carrot and let sit for 10 minutes. Once that is done you can store
up to a week with the pickling liquid in a jar.

To cook the steak heat a grill pan at medium high
heat, and once at desired temperature place steak on. Let cook on each side for
about 6 minutes, depending on how thick your steak is check the inside to test
the doneness. Otherwise you just want to get a nice sear on to add a nice crispness.
Let steak sit for 10 minutes before you slice.

To assemble the sandwich, cut the baguette into thirds
and then down the middle, lay the meat down, then some pickled slaw, then some
sliced cabbage, then top with a pinch of cilantro!